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Despite the war, Swiss-Ukrainian Project set to take next steps

Decentralization for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE)

The recent Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE) project supports the Ukrainian education reform “The New Ukrainian School” (enacted in 2017) by decentralising school structures. Starting in 2019, the project is designed to last five years and will reach a total population of about 200,000 people. Local capacities will be strengthened through decentralised schools in the so-called “Amalgamated Territorial Communities”, and democratically oriented components regarding school management and quality will be implemented across 16 municipalities (12 rural and 4 urban) in 4 regions (Ivano-Frankivsk, Luhansk, Odesa and Poltava). As a result, citizens from the target regions are expected to benefit from an improved decentralised system of education management, which will provide better access to quality education:

  • Parents’ rights to decide for themselves the form of education their children will receive;
  • Spatial accessibility of education for all;
  • Rights for children with disabilities and
  • Minimisation of academic integrity problems (plagiarism, falsified results of pedagogical and scientific work, corruption).

The project is being implemented by a consortium of the NGO DOCCU (Natalia Protasova and Valentyna Poltorak) and the Zurich University of Teacher Education (Iris Henseler Stierlin and Rolf Gollob) and is supported by ministries and local authorities. Switzerland’s experience is being rolled out across decentralised educational organisations and schools. The good, long-standing working relationships from the earlier DOCCU project (through which we have been cooperating with Ukraine for 13 years already) are fundamental to working with the authorities in the project partner regions.

The way in which our colleagues in Ukraine have continued to work along the democratic path since February 24 under the most difficult conditions impresses us all enormously and deserves our greatest respect and our unqualified solidarity.

See https://lms.e-school.net.ua/